Content Warning: This work contains depictions of violence, strong language, and themes of grief that some readers may find distressing. Reader discretion is advised. Also, any personal opinions contained in this does not come from any licensed field of study. It’s just my opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions …
I want to warn you now, this essay is almost the whole book. It took me so long to read it because, I take a lot of notes on all the FBI books I read. Especially if they are written by Kathrin Ramsland, John Douglas, Robert Ressler, or Ann Burgess. I graded this book 4 fingerprints out of 5.
Katherine Ramsland Ph. D. criminology. This woman is one amazing woman. She went to work for FBI under John Douglas with her doctorate degree in Philosophy, but she didn’t stop there. She then went on to get her master’s degree in forensic psychology. I just love reading her books. No matter what book or what topic, I promise, you will be trapped inside her world as you read through it. She takes you through so many deep dives, and you will be the wiser for it.
I had the opportunity to meet her in person at CRIMECON2024. I haven’t been able to go to another CRIMECON due to how expensive it is and because of my health problems. In 2024, that trip was just destined to happen. It seemed like everything fell right into place. I wouldn’t have traded that trip for nothing in the world. If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend you take the opportunity while you have it. Even when I was there, I spoke to a lot of people from almost every state. Most of them said that was their 2nd or 3rd CRIMECON, but I don’t think I met anyone that had been to more than that. If I did, it was rare. Sure, it is a little pricey to go, but it is an experience that will stay with you for a very long time.
In How To Catch A Killer, Ramsland tells how the various serial killers were caught. What was their downfall … because they all had one. A few of the killers I recognized from all my other reading and documentaries. But, she did have some surprises. People that done things that for the life of me, couldn’t figure out how they got by with it for as long as they did. In her research, she tells you what the crime was, how they were caught, and then the takeaway from it. At the end of her books, she usually gives a more in-depth lesson learned from the study. Usually her summaries are a few pages long, but not on this book. I am assuming that is because of all the detail she put in on the cases she discussed.
Some of the cases go way back, I mean a long time ago. Those were the cases that were solved and we didn’t have all the technology we have today to do it.
No crime is funny, but there are times when someone will do something that gives you a chuckle.
Spoiler Alert
From this point on, I will be discussing things that were discussed in the book. I will do this to put my twist or opinion. Some of these crimes shocked me. I couldn’t believe the killer done the things they had done or how people in society treated them.
Quote:
The Behavior Analysis Unit says that a serial killer kills because he needs to feel empowered. Something in their life has left them powerless and this is one thing he can control. This can be anything from abuse as a child or a job loss as an adult. It is literally to get control of their life again. — Katherine Ramsland
JACK UNTERWEGER (Austrian Jack The Ripper)
Jack Unterweger went to prison for the murder of Margarett Schaffer. After serving his time, he was released on parole. While in prison, he studied writing. Because as we all know, prisons today are sending our prisoners to school. They come out with degrees and didn’t have to pay a dime for them. Anyway, Unterweger went on to write 2 books and would write poetry. When he gets released, more sex workers were found murdered. He claims it wasn’t him, but the evidence was unsurmountable. This case took place in Austria and believe it or not, sex work is not illegal there … even today.
This case proved to the FBI that their ViCap system worked. It tied all his murders to him regardless if he done them in Austria, Vienna, or the United States. It also proved literary skills doesn’t cure a psychopath.
Quote:
I think it can be that a man goes fishing and sometimes he’s not very lucky. It may be some social issues. He’s busy at home or work. I did not fit the normal profile of a serial killer. Why were there gaps of so many years? Bottom line, I was always on-the-prowl. — Dennis Radar (BTK)
DENNIS RADAR (BTK – Bind, Torture, Kill)
Usually, or at least not in my documentaries, books or podcasts, have I seen a serial killer who admitted to studying other serial killers and admiring their work. BTK compared himself to H. H. Holmes, Jack The Ripper, and Ted of the West (Ted Bundy). As I read this book, I discovered there were actually several serial killers that studied others for one reason or another.
Radar claimed to have a “monster” that lived inside of him. He said, “Factor X” motivated all his killings. That was the demon inside him. I have to take that as a grain of salt. How are you going to admire the work of another and then claim that there is a monster that lived inside of you.
I recently read a book about Radar and the things that he put his family through was a work of evil within itself.
Quote:
How many do I have to kill to get a name in the paper or some national attention? Do the cops think that all those deaths are not related? — Dennis Radar
Radar was proof that serial killers want to regain control of their life in one fashion or another. When the police nor the media would give him a “serial killer” name, he decided to give himself one. He came up with the BTK and sent the newspaper a letter letting them know what his name was. If that isn’t laughable, I don’t know what is.
BTK’s downfall was his narcissism and belief in his own cleverness, coupled with dogged police work.
BTK was unique in these ways:
- No known abuse in his childhood
- A few head injuries, but no neurological work-up
- He admired other serial killers as a teen
JOSEPH JAMES DeANGEL (Golden State Killer)
Joseph was also called the Visalia Ransaker. Then he moved and he was called the East Area Rapist. He had broken into over 200 homes in 2 areas. He would only take something of sentimental value, nothing he could pawn. He only wanted a souvenir. He also murdered 12 people and 50 rapes. Ramsland said police get some of the leads in odd situations. At times, the police will put things in the paper they want the suspect to read. Today, it is social media the police utilizes.
I read another book by Paul Holes UNMASKED. In that book he discusses how he caught the Golden State Killer. He was looking around the office for something to do one day and he found this very dusty box in a corner by itself. He took it out and started reading over the information in the box. It was everything they knew about the Golden State Killer. In his spare time, he would look at that information and eventually he figured out how to solve the case. Joseph was 72-years-old when Investigator Holes figured out who he was. Believe it or not, he was a retired police officer.
FRANK HOWARD (John Howard)
Frank wasn’t given a stage name like most serial killers. They mostly referred to him as “John Howard”.
Frank confessed to kidnapping kids for their meat. He was a confused cannibal. He would chop them to death, skin them, cut off their heads, drain the blood out, and put all the bones to the side, and he would cook the butt to eat. He said before he killed them, he had to beat the child a bit to make their meat tender. He said he would snatch the kids from all over. All the kids were good but he preferred black kids because they were the less likely to give a big fuss or trigger an investigation.
Now, that is pretty gruesome. To hear (or read in this case) he had to beat the child to make the meat tender, but then to go on to say he preferred black kids because they don’t spark an investigation. Can you imagine how upsetting that must have been to hear? Honestly, all of it is terrible. Grant it, I have never eaten the meet of a child, much less cook it, but I am sure what you did to them before death had nothing to do with the meat when it was prepared. If that was the case, we would have to beat all the cows, chickens, and hogs before we killed them to make sure they are going to be tender. That was just him wanting to add a little mustard to the wound of insults.
At the time of this blog, the nation is seeing some bad race issues. To know he was abducting these kids because no one missed them is basically what he is saying. His killing spree was between 1924-1934. For that time period he might be right. Just being honest. Look at it this way, the black citizens didn’t have the full right to vote until 1964, so that tells you what state our nation was in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He may be right, but that has to be a big pill to swallow for the families and today’s black community.
But Frank had some more interesting facts also. He liked to self-mutilate his own body. After captured, there really wasn’t nothing anyone could do to Frank that he hadn’t already done to himself. Ramsland shares some of the things they found in his body in the autopsy. I will save you all the gory details here, but I assure you, He truly did punish himself more than any body else could.
I realize he punished himself and I somewhat understand it, but I do wonder why? I mean, was he condemning his sins, or was he just that curious about how what he done to the kids felt for his own information? If so, those kids were over tortured. The beatings were probably the best they got from him.
Quote:
A final take away is the value of investigative persistence. Sometimes, the subtlest clue will break a case, and it can come years later. Observant detectives remain vigilant for such events. Many cold cases have been solved with something as simple as a lone-fingerprint or drop of blood. — Katherine Ramsland
JOHN WAYNE GACY (The Clown)
John’s last words before dying by the death penalty, “kiss my ass”. Six of his victims were never identified. His brain was saved to give to research.
I have to say, that is kinda ironic that his brain was saved for research. Ted Bundy pleaded with the prisons and the judges not to give him the death penalty. He felt that he could be so much more useful if he was kept alive to pick his brain and research it. Little did he realize, they didn’t need him to be alive to pick his brain for research. I can’t help but laugh at the killers that beg not to be put to death. I wonder how many of their victims begged to not be killed?
RODRIGO JACQUES ALCALA BUGUOR (The Dating Game Killer)
I haven’t heard of Rodrigo in a long time, but that is what Ramsland is good at, her memory of the various cases she worked on. I try to read, research, watch, and write any true crime medias I can, but I can’t remember ever reading about this one. I knew about him, but I don’t think it was some long drawn discussion of his case. I was probably only in the 4th or 5th grade when I briefly heard about him.
There was this game show back in the 1970’s that was called the dating game. You had the Bachelorettes looking for a date with a partition between the bachelors. The Bachelorettes , would ask questions to three bachelors and at the end of the game, she would choose the one that she liked for answering the best way. In this case, she chose Alcala. At the end of the show, when she is to give the participant a hug (and sometimes a kiss), she said when she gave Alcala a hug, she got a weird vibe from him. She ended up not going out on that date with him. She got a funny feeling about him. Which in this case, she was good at reading a person. She may have just saved her life by not going on that date.
JOHN ROBINSON (The Slave Master)
John was another sick serial killer and I don’t say that because all serial killers are not sick, I say that because a lot of them should have never made it to trial … especially the ones in the 1800’s. They didn’t have courts like we do today. To murder a killer would not have been outside the realm of thinking back then. Yes, we did have serial killers that date all the way back to then.
John called himself, Slave Master, but his killings weren’t really for sex, it was for greed. Slave Master was the moniker he used to lure women to him. There truly are women out there who look for bondage type sex. It is not an all male club. But I guess we should know that because the men aren’t having sex with themselves.
Robinson would lure these women to him in hopes of getting a job at his company. There is indication that he would beat these women, rape them, and kill them. It isn’t clear how long he kept them alive. Most criminology writers believe that he only lure the women that were getting a monthly check or money coming in. It doesn’t specify how he knew which women this would be and how he knew it wasn’t others.
There were other women he would lure so he could have S&M sex with them. I guess if I am going to write true crime, I should be willing to make a concerted effort to spell out what certain activities are, but Ramsland didn’t even elaborate on the details of S&M sex, so that is just something you will have to Google. Trust me, it is there.
John was one of those killers that should have been caught so much sooner than he was. There were family members that went to the police and reported him for their family member missing. But it apparently didn’t work in some cases. The police would tell these family members that there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant an investigation. To me, this sounds like shady police work. I would like to believe the police of our era are a little bit more intuitive than that. I have tried to see when his murder spree started, but all I could find was that his criminal enterprise started in 1969 with money schemes. He was put to death in 2003, yet they consider him the worlds first “internet serial killer”. So, I am having a hard time figuring out how he was the first internet serial killer because I was thinking computers only got popular at the turn of the century (or so I thought). Apparently, long before I got a computer and internet, it had been growing more popular.
MOSES SITHOLES (ABC KILLER)
David was killing women in Africa. He was linked to 13 killings. They were getting him to take the police to all the dump sites. While out there, David grabbed a log and hit an officer with it. When he did, the other officer shot and killed him.
Shortly after this incident, in another town in Africa, more dead women were showing up, they thought they had a copy cat killer. The theory was either David had an associate who was continuing to kill women, or there was another serial killer in the area with a similar approach. When the police studied the murders, they discovered many differences between the murders.
The police found a mass grave with ten female bodies. They ranged in age from 20-23-years-old. They had been raped, strangled, left naked and exposed. The police believed they were looking at 2 killers, the media believed there was only one and David had been wrongly accused.
Since there were 3 clusters of bodies: Atteridgeville Boksburg, and Cleveland. He dubbed the ABC killer. They called FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler (another one of my favorite authors, I will be reviewing one of his books in the near future) in to help them nail down a profile of a suspect. His profile of the suspect: Black person (it’s Africa of course), expensive vehicle, financially secure, wears flashy clothes, and jewelry, late 20-30’s, and strong sex drive with aggressive fantasies. He’s intelligent, sophisticated, streetwise, and non-threatening. He’d be self-employed and speak several languages. An extrovert and charming with the ladies. He may be married, knew a lot about the other serial killers, and likely following news about the investigation. Contemptuous of women, he likely savored the killings, which were connected to a woman he felt wronged him. Ressler thought it could be 2 people working together with one of them dominant and controlling. He saw rising sophistication in the torture of the victims with the number of killings. He said he may have took the women to the gravesite for the added torture. The killer wanted the bodies to be found for the thrill of the community shock.
Ressler investigated strategies: keep the crime scene guarded and preserved. Place mobile phones in the humbler neighborhoods, so tips can be called in. Keep the soil samples from the crime scenes in the event he has soil in his home, vehicle, or shoes for comparison purposes. He recommended a psychological consultant for interrogating the suspect. He predicted the offender liked the attention and would soon contact the police or newspaper. Two weeks later, an anonymous telephone call came to the Star Newspaper. The caller claimed to be “the man so highly wanted”. He said he’d committed the murders in revenge against a woman who’d falsely accused him of rape and he’d been to prison for the accusation. His victims resembling her. He claimed he was abused and tortured in prison and his parents and sister died while he was there. He said he forces the woman to go where he wants and when he goes there he tells them he was hurt and now he is doing the hurting, then he kills them. He told Ressler his profile was wrong. He doesn’t have a car, and hadn’t killed the ladies in Cleveland and has not murdered a child. He claimed to have killed 76 women so far and gave directions to a body they hadn’t found, yet. He called 2 more times and they traced the calls and just missed him. But they got another lead: one of the girls had last been seen with a guy in his 30’s named Moses Sithole, a youth counselor with a prison record for rape (kinda reminds you of Ted Bundy). This was the lead they were looking for. However, Sitholes went on the run and was hard to find. The police released his picture to the media for helping find him and he was there.
When an officer was closing in on him, he came at them with a hatchet, wounding one officer in the arm (he seems to have a passion for injuring officers). Another officer shot him in the foot and stomach. He was taken to the hospital and recovered. He tested positive for HIV (Georgia and Florida have consistently had the highest HIV rate in the United States). Sitholes said he believes there is a copycat because he never killed a kid.
The last comment about killing a kid, is interesting to me. If killers purposely brag about higher number of kills to make their image seem tougher when the go to prison, wouldn’t it be the same for someone who goes in for killing a kid. Killing or abusing a kid is picked on in prison and we already know he claims to have been raped in his first tour of prison. But seriously, how is it that the mother’s body was found with the child. I’m sure the child didn’t simply lay down by his mother until he died too. Of course, this is assuming the mother and child was found in the mass grave that held all the other women killed.
David killed women between 1994-1995. He claimed to have killed 76 women, that would mean he killed at least one woman a week. He got better treatment for his HIV in prison. Ironically, to extend his life while he serves 2,410 years in prison. He would have to die and come back and serve more years several times before he completes that sentence.
By 2004, there were 50 South African serial killers. There is a lot that can be said about stats like that. The black people in Africa are killing black people in Africa at a much faster rate than the United States black people are killing black people. Why is this an issue? The black community either refuses or can’t tell us why that is. They don’t even seem upset by the stats on this issue. It’s like, as long as a white person doesn’t do it. I know more white people worried about that problem than black people do. Where’s the logic? I know why I worry about that stat, I have a sweet bi-racial granddaughter and I wonder what kind of world she is going to face in the future.
TAKAHIRO SHIRAISHI (They Hanging Pro)
Part of the interest in reading this book is reading the next heading and before moving on, thinking about their name and trying to guess how they got that name. I didn’t know what I was getting into with this one. But it definitely wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but then again, most of them aren’t.
The Hanging Pro is a suicide website called, groupsuicide.net. It is a site where people go to get help, advice, or for someone to do it with them or for someone to sit with them while they kill themselves. They go to these sites and they sign a pact to commit suicide together. The pacts are legal and binding and they are hard to get out of (but seriously, what are they going to do, kill you).
The more common way people on these sites do it is by jumping in front of a moving train or lethal gases of some sort. Before we go any further, if you are as curious as me, I had to look up suicide websites at this point to see if there is really any out there. The two mentioned in this segment of the book are no longer websites you can go to and I couldn’t find one website that caters to that today. However, anyone with enough drive, could and will find or do whatever it is they want. Just saying …
Takahiro was aware of these sites. He had violent impulses. He decided it would be better to use his aggressive impulses by killing people who was on these sites. He figured half the job was already done, the victim was ready to die. He had already been to prison for assaulting a male co-worker, and strangling 2 females. Prison didn’t cure his violent nature and he found a way to exercise it with no penalties. He kept going to prison for things he was doing. Every prison stint gave him more crafty ways to get away with his crimes (but isn’t that what they say all prisoners do).
Takahiro joined an online suicide club. Over a period of 4 months, whenever someone asked for others to enter the group suicide pact, Takahiro would volunteer. He lured people into the pact with the promise to do the charcoal death together.
Charcoal Death: Fatal carbon monoxide Poisoning resulting from burning Charcoal In enclosed or poorly ventilated environment.
Then he would manually strangle or sooth them. Two victims were adults and one was a 14-year-old boy. He would film these murders so he could watch them later and re-live the experience. He loved watching the faces of distress. The police sought him through his chain of enticing emails to a woman.
Takahiro was finally arrested in 2005 and put to death in 2009. But his MO inspired someone else with the death compulsion.
Let me cut in here. Takahiro’s death sentence was done exactly the way one should do it. He was arrested in 2005 and put to death in 2009. We need to stop holding these people on death row for 10 and 20 years, supplying meals, TV, and Internet to them. These people knew what they done was a crime and now they have been convicted by a jury for the crime. Stop wasting time and fulfill their sentence … the death penalty.
Aiko Tamura was 20-years-old and lived in Zama, Japan. Aiko Tamura in October 2017 vanished after expressing sadness, and regret on a suicide site. A man named Takahiro was the one to answer her plea. He was a 27-year-old and he was on a suspended sentence for scouting for a prostition ring.
Tamura’s brother was determined to find out what happened to her. He reported her missing to the police, but he also done his own investigation. He hacked her twitter account (now X) and used it to ask around and see if anyone had spoken to her. One lady knew about her talking to Takahiro and told him about his invitation. She told him about his sister making an appointment with him to end her life. Instead of Tamura showing up, 2 police officers did.
Takahiro didn’t seem so surprised when the police arrived. He pointed to a food cooler and told them she was in it. He had dismembered her and stored the parts. His apartment had a foul smell to it. By the end of the day, they found the body parts of 9 people that was killed by him.
His apartment was similar to that of Jeffrey Dahmer or Britain’s Dennis Wilson, both who also stored bodies around their apartments. Several other tenants, as in Dahmer’s place, had complained about the foul smell, but no one went to the police. Eight of the bodies were women and the last one was a male.
Let me cut in again, I doubt I could ever be a victim of this guy or Dahmer (well, definitely not Dahmer because he was gay) because I am super sensitive to my senses. If there is a foul odor or something doesn’t look right, I am stopping and I will go back out the way I came in.
Takahiro had manipulated these women when they were already in a vulnerable state. Takahiro’s girlfriend said he was obsessed with death. Another friend described the chocking games they played as a kid. After the prison sentence for the prostitution ring, he moved in with his dad. He complained he had no sense of purpose. His state of mind was he had nothing to lose by indulging in his fantasies. Even if it meant more prison time.
Takahiro set up 2 Twitter accounts. On one, “professional hangman” offering his services at hanging pro. He would say things like he wants to help people who are really in pain. He wanted to spread the knowledge of hanging. He wanted to be the “source of strength” for people in pain.
The other Twitter account was “I Want to Die”. He would pose as a forelorn guy wanting company. He would tell people who were at a “dead-end” to contact him for guidance and assistance. He would put his own suicidal thoughts as bait (they were fake thoughts). He would offer to die with them, then renege. He knew there wasn’t much they could do after they were dead. Sometimes, he would “suicide recruitment” hashtags. As long as he appeared compassionate and sincere, he found it easy to lure his victims. He killed 9 people between August 2017 and October 2017. Four of them were teens.
One of Takahiro’s near victim said he gave her 2 options of how to die. One was to make her unconscious by putting a sleep drug in her drink and then he would choke her in her sleep, or he could choke her with a rope from behind while she watches TV. They had discussed this on the phone and she thought she heard a woman moaning in the background.
This woman was almost his victim, there are no details if she went to his house or not. I do wonder if she changed her mind after this.
The media labeled Takahiro’s apartment a “house of horrors”. He had lived with his dad previously and he told his dad he wants to live with a girl he has fallen in love with. His dad paid the rent every month and Takahiro started his killing spree.
The similarities between Takahiro and Dahmer are so uncanny, but there is no mention of one studying the other to mimic so much. But as far as killers go in general, they seem to depend on their Dad to foot the bill of their up-keep. They rather spend their day killing people, than to get a job and support themselves. Which makes me wonder, what in their upbringing made them think this was normal? I haven’t heard what state the dads’ financial status go, but it doesn’t appear that they were wealthy.
Even though Takahiro freely admits these women really didn’t want to die, they just wanted someone to talk to. He would kill them anyway. He would give them alcohol or sleeping pills before strangling them. Then he hung them. It would take him 3 days to chop up a body small enough to store. He told detectives he had no desire to die, and most of his victims didn’t want to either. He would use the $1000’s of dollars in their purses to support himself.
You know, I was thinking, the book says that the pacts these suicides people made were legal and binding … How? Well, I had to research that, they are legal and binding. It has something to do with criminal and mental health law, but you can make one. I can’t shake my head slow enough for that one. It will take a long time for me to understand that law.
Takahiro was a quiet conscientious boy, who played baseball and ran track in school.
The souvenirs he collected included cell phones (well, I am sure, they probably brought it with them and it was just convenient). This was how the police was able to find some of the families.
We often compare serial killers, dang, they themselves compare their cases to other serial killers, but this guy had A LOT in common with Jeffrey Dahmer. I can’t express that enough. If two people ever wanted to team up with someone else, these two would have fit the bill to a tee. The parents of both live divorced when they were young and their fathers got custody of them.
I read the book that Dahmer’s dad wrote. It is called, A Father’s Story. I was not impressed with it at all. The whole book was a “oh woes me, my son killed so many people, pity me”.
Never once does he stop to think how he was half of the cause for that. I am so glad I read, My Friend Dahmer, one of his friend’s books first. This friend told how Dahmer’s life was pitiful. He deserved so much better. His mother was mentally ill and his Dad walked out on the family. After he walked out, long before their actual divorce date, his mother became very mentally ill. She took Dahmer’s brother and left the home. She told Dahmer not to tell his dad that she has left. Well, his dad wasn’t living there and his mom wanted him to keep this secret, so that left him there all by himself. When his father did find out she was gone, all he done was brought Dahmer groceries from time to time. It was up to Dahmer if he went to school or even cared what he was doing in school. As a early teen he was practically on his own. I have no sympathy for the father. Yes, the mother left you high and dry, but he was having his own affairs and should have picked up the reins to guide his son into good choices.
Takahiro stayed on the computer a lot. I am sure that fed right into his violent nature.
Quote:
A 2003 comparison of 82 Japanese serial killers to 402 American serial killers over a span of 200 years indicates Americans are more likely to be sexually motivated, while Japanese offenders tend to kill for financial gain, have accomplices, and have adult male victims.
Japanese serial killers tend to involve victim mutilation. Ramsland made a comment similar to mine earlier. The computer plays a big part in today’s serial killers. There are A LOT of suicide sites out there and the porn some people watch, makes them immune to human contact. Twitter is the hardest platform for police to monitor. They let people speak their minds and form any group they want. But then again, after Trump got kicked off Facebook, for telling all his lies, he went to Twitter (now X) so he could spew all his lies and propaganda. After moving to Twitter, Elon Musk sold Twitter to X, which belongs to SpaceX. The owner of the SpaceX is Elon Musk substidary company. I’m not sure what the difference in owner and operating under a substidary. Google (my bestfriend) says one company is owned completely and controlled by the person. A substidary, the person only has a say so in legal matters. Then Trump created Truth Social to get back at the two big media sites. But then Elon Musk and Trump were able to work together for 130 days. Today, they are not on speaking terms. Apparently, the financial wiz that Musk is, couldn’t get the financial loser Trump to understand good financial moves. Trump, being the one that likes bankruptcy more than being a financial genius. Elon Musk has never bankrupted a company (yet we have Trump at the helm of the United States finances, are we idiots). But, this was just another one of my rabbit holes.
TODD KOLHEPP (The Grudge Killer)
When Todd went into a motorcycle shop and was looking to buy one. The people at the store looked at him funny and he claims they laughed at the thought of him getting a motorcycle. It is doubtful that they done this, nonetheless, it wasn’t a reason to kill them. He went in wanting to kill only the ones that done that, but he realized he couldn’t leave any witnesses.
John Douglas was sent some of the files to get a profile of who they were looking for. Douglas said that the suspect had a grudge against the shop and not a single person. No one sent Douglas a list of disgruntled customers or employees. The case went cold and family members were left with more questions than answers.
Twelve years later, couples started coming up missing and the last place they were seen was at Todd’s house. Many of the couples told family members and friends where they were headed to do some work. It was one of the cell phones that belonged to one of the men that pinged at Todd’s home. When the police got search warrants to search his property, they find one surviving witness in a train car. It was this victim that was the one tip they needed to find the others. He admitted that he had raped the women in the other killings, but he said he didn’t rape the surviving victim. She claims he did. But honestly, if you knew these others were dead (and she did know and knew they were buried), wouldn’t you do what you needed to survive?
Todd’s request before confessing to the police was he wanted to call his mother and let her know. When they let him call her, he tells her that he just killed some people. Her question calmly and almost in a polite manner, “how many”.
With Todd’s mother responding like that, I have to wonder if she didn’t already know, or did she just know he had a violent temper? Not sure which, but I do know if my son was to call me and tell me this, I would tell them to do what they do and don’t bother me with any details. I wouldn’t want to know where he was, what they plan to do, or contact me for any reason after that phone call. I have always told my kids, I will be the first one to call the police on them if they break the law.
As a child, Todd was a bully. He forced other children to do what he wanted them to do. At one point, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital for 3 months. One of the counselors wrote, “he is demanding, self-centered, and likes to demand others to do what he wanted them to.” One of his probation officers (which makes one think, what was he on probation for) thought he was a budding psychopath. He had all these people putting notes, red flags, on him, and yet no one could help him. So, for all this to happen, my bet is, his mother knew he would one day kill someone. I am sure these professionals are not the only ones that seen the red flags.
I don’t want to rush to an end of this review, but I truly need to get started on my new book. Dark Tide by Edna Cowell Martin. However, when I was reviewing the cases in this book, it occurred to me that I have a lot more to say about a few more cases that were profiled. I’m not sure if I should simply add to this review when I get some time or if I will make another additional essay. But, whatever I decided to do, I will make it clear that it is a part of this one. So, you will want to stay tuned because I think she saved the best for last.
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